How to Reduce Sugar in Your Child’s Diet

Children just love sweets and who can blame them? We often bring home sweet treats for them after our work just to indulge them from time to time. But when there is too much sugar in their system, it can lead to various health issues from having high blood sugar levels, to decaying teeth, to being overweight. However, it’s not easy getting your kids to give up their love of sweets, but the good news is that you wean them off from this addiction using these tips.

Reduce sugary drinks

Children love their soda, lemonade, sports drinks, fruit punch and the like with their meals or snacks, but these beverages come with high amounts of sugar which is not good for them. Even fruit juice is not that good because all the fiber from the fruit has been removed. Instead of serving them lemonade, why not pair their meal with milk or water.

Skip the cereals

It is understandable that you will want your breakfast time to go smoothly, and although breakfast cereals do bring out happy smiles from your kids, they can cause a spike in their blood sugar early in the day, then cause a crash after. A better breakfast is oats which are not only cheaper compared to cereals, but they are also loaded with fiber which can fill their belly while regulating their blood sugar.

Cook more

Eating out may be a habit of yours especially when you are busy, or even order take outs to avoid spending time in the kitchen, but you are actually setting yourself family up with too much sugar. A good way to avoid this is to start cooking more at home. This way, you will have more control over the ingredients that you are using and even get the chance to serve them healthier food at the same time.

Serve yogurts

Another way to help reduce the amount of sugar that your children are eating during snack is to give them yogurt, the full fat ones, since they are low in sugar content. Greek yogurt may be a good choice, but it has high protein content. If you can make your own yogurt then all well and good, but if not, you can look for yogurt that has lower sugar content.

Pack snacks earlier

If you’re hanging out with your kids outside your home, you’re probably getting snacks off the candy aisle just to keep them up and running. But this is not really helping them out with their sugar consumption which is why you need to plan their snacks ahead of time. A better snack option is to bring fruits, nuts, veggies with their dips, or trail mix. These have low sugar content which makes them safe to eat.

Educate them

It would be a good idea to discuss the effects of sugar to your children as much as possible so that they will be aware of what it can do to them. You can even compare healthy foods with sugar laden products so that they will be able to weigh their options properly.

Prepare more vegetables and fruits

Since you will be cooking more at home, it is your responsibility to add more vegetables and fruits to the table. And it’s not just your kids who will be eating them, but you should too as well. Keep in mind that your children will be following you so setting them up with good eating habits at a young age is going to help them out in the long run.

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